TCSS Earth Systems Unit 3 – Earth History Information

Home , Paleomagnetism, Relative dating, Stratum

Georgia Performance Standards: SES4. Students will understand how rock relationships and fossils are used to reconstruct the Earth’s past. a. Describe and apply principles of relative age (superposition, original horizontality, cross-cutting relations, and original lateral continuity) and describe how unconformities form. b. Interpret the geologic history of a succession of rocks and unconformities. c. Apply the principle of uniformitarianism to relate sedimentary rock associations and their fossils to the environments in which the rocks were deposited. d. Explain how sedimentary rock units are correlated within and across regions by a variety of methods (e.g., geologic map relationships, the principle of fossil succession, radiometric dating, and paleomagnetism). e. Use geologic maps and stratigraphic relationships to interpret major events in Earth history (e.g., mass extinction, major climatic change, tectonic events). SES6. Students will explain how life on Earth responds to and shapes Earth systems. d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction that is best explained by the mechanism of natural selection. e. Identify the evolutionary innovations that most profoundly shaped Earth systems: photosynthetic prokaryotes and the atmosphere; multicellular animals and marine environments; land plants and terrestrial environments.

Purpose/Goal(s): Students will understand how rock relationships and fossils are used to reconstruct the Earth’s past.

Content Map: Unit 3 – Earth History Content Map

Prerequisites: Unit 3 – Earth History Middle School Standards

Unit Length: Approximately 20 days

Click on the links below for resources by Concept:

Concept 1: Fossils

Concept 2: Rock Record

TCSS Earth Systems Earth History Unit Information Concept, Essential Question(s), and Vocabulary Resources [Back to Top] Assessment Standard(s) Concept 1: Fossils Essential* PowerPoints and Notes: Concept 1: Sample Ancestry  Fossils and Natural Selection Assessment Items EQ1: What are some of Cross-Cutting Relations  Determining the Age of Rocks the methods that Evolution  Geologic Time and Earth’s Biological History scientists use to learn Extinction  Relative Dating about the Earth’s long Fossils  Uniformitarianism history? Fossil Succession  The Fossil Record and Geologic Time Scale Geologic Map  Reading the Rock Record Natural Selection SES4. Students will Original Horizontality Animations and Videos: understand how rock Original Lateral  Animation Fossil Formation (time 3:33) relationships and fossils Continuity are used to reconstruct Paleomagnetism  What is Relative Dating? (time 8:06) the Earth’s past. Radiometric Dating a. Describe and apply Sedimentary Handouts and Activities: principles of relative age Superposition  Time Line Activator: For this activity you will make a (superposition, original timeline of your life. This will allow students to grasp the idea horizontality, cross-cutting Uniformitarianism relations, and original of time in sequential order. lateral continuity) and Supplemental**  Cross Cutting Relationship Handouts: This handout allows describe how Eon students to practice the concept of cross cutting relationships. unconformities form. Epoch Should be used after teaching the concept. c. Apply the principle of Era uniformitarianism to relate Geologic time scale  Relative Dating Worksheet: This handout allows you to sedimentary rock Mass Extinction practice the concepts of Uniformitarianism, Superposition, associations and their Period Original Horizontality, and Cross-cutting relationships. Great fossils to the environments Precambrian way to have them practice the concepts in which the rocks were  Relative Age Dating Principles: Students are asked to use the deposited. Cross-Cutting Relationship principles of cross-cutting relationships and superposition d. Explain how sedimentary determine the age of craters. rock units are correlated Principle of Inclusions within and across regions Original Horizontality  Unit One Worksheet Geology: Packet could be used by a variety of methods Relative-Age Dating throughout course. For the purposes of this unit you would (e.g., geologic map Superposition want to use pages 5-9 to assess their knowledge of concepts relationships, the principle Uniformitarianism taught in this unit. of fossil succession, Absolute-Age Dating  Superposition Mystery Lab: To be able to determine the order radiometric dating, and Half-life of a sequence of events and apply this skill to a geological TCSS Earth Systems Earth History Unit Information paleomagnetism). Radioactive Decay exercise, in order to determine a sequence of hypothetical SES6. Students will Radiocarbon Dating geological events and their relative age. explain how life on Earth Radiometric Dating  Earth Science Relative Dating Virtual Lab: Students with the responds to and shapes Altered Hard Part use of technology will practice the ideal of relative dating. Earth systems. Cast Good summarizing activity. d. Describe how fossils Index Fossil provide a record of shared  Using Relative Dating and Unconformities to Determine ancestry, evolution, and Mineral Replacement Sequences of Events: In this lab we will deal with relative extinction that is best Mold dating. In relative dating, events are established as 1) older explained by the Original than, 2) younger than, or 3) the same age as other geologic mechanism of natural Preservation events. selection. Trace Fossil  Lab Activity – Relative Dating: When observing a road-cut the different stratum of rocks becomes obvious. Geologic *Essential vocabulary events such as deposition, erosion, volcanism and faulting are listed in the GPS preserved in the rock and it is possible to determine the Standards sequence of events from oldest to most recent. Sequencing events establishes a relative age of a stratum. The process of **Supplemental showing that rocks or geologic events occurring at different vocabulary listed in the locations are the same age is called correlation. Index fossils state frameworks and/or and similar rocks types help geologists establish correlations other state document between distance rock outcrops.

TCSS Earth Systems Earth History Unit Information Concept, Essential Question(s), and Vocabulary Resources [Back to Top] Assessment Standard(s) Concept 2: Rock Record Essential* PowerPoints and Notes: Concept 2: Sample Geologic History  Cenozoic Era Assessment Items EQ1: How did complex life Land Plants  Paleozoic Era develop and diversity Major Climatic Change  Mesozoic Era during the three eras of the Marine Environments Phanerozoic as the Mass Extinction  Earth Systems Chapter 23 Notes(Teacher and Student) continents moved into their Multicellular Animals o Recommend using these present positions? Photosynthetic Prokaryotes Animations and Videos: SES4. Students will Stratigraphic  Mesozoic Era (time 5:00) understand how rock Relationships  The Day the Mesozoic Died (time 33:43) relationships and fossils Succession are used to reconstruct Tectonic Events Handouts and Activities: the Earth’s past. Terrestrial Environments b. Interpret the geologic Unconformities  Earth’s History Timeline Lab: We are going to make a scale history of a succession of model of Earth’s history. A scale model means that the rocks and unconformities. Supplemental** timeline accurately depicts different lengths of time. All of the e. Use geologic maps and Cambrian Explosion times that we are going to deal with in this lab are in millions stratigraphic relationships Paleogeography of years ago (mya). To figure out the lengths that we need in to interpret major events in Passive Margin this lab use the following proportion Earth history (e.g., mass Regression  Precambrian and Paleozoic Transparency Activity: Students extinction, major climatic Transgression will use the attached transparency or sheet to answer questions change, tectonic events). Amniotic Egg about the Precambrian and Paleozoic time periods. SES6. Students will Iridium explain how life on Earth Phytoplankton  Paleozoic Era: Life Explodes (Worksheet 1) (Worksheet 2): responds to and shapes Bipedal Review sheet about what occurred during the Paleozoic Era. Earth systems. Homo Sapiens Good summative assessment. Work best with student fill in e. Identify the evolutionary blank notes. innovations that most *Essential vocabulary listed  Mesozoic Era: Age of Reptiles: Review sheet about what profoundly shaped Earth in the GPS Standards occurred during the Mesozoic Era. Good summative systems: photosynthetic assessment. Work best with student fill in blank notes. prokaryotes and the **Supplemental vocabulary  Cenozoic Era: The Age of Mammals: Review sheet about atmosphere; multicellular listed in the state what occurred during the Cenozoic Era. Good summative animals and marine frameworks and/or other assessment. Work best with student fill in blank notes. environments; land plants state document and terrestrial environments.